Photo provided Each BCSC employee will receive a handwritten note of gratitude, a card for a free drink at Lucabe Coffee Co. and a piece of “gratitude art.”
“Agood, old-fashioned thank-you note goes a long way.”
These words, said by Community Development Coordinator Angie Emmitt, are a good summary of the thinking behind the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation’s “Grateful and Thankful” campaign, which aims to send messages of gratitude to almost 2,000 individuals who work in the school district.
Emmitt and BCSF director Suzi Bruin began delivering thank-you cards to the staff of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. on Monday. Bruin said ahead of time that they planned to deliver cards to about 1,800 people employed by the school corporation, as well as school resource officers.
“We want to make sure that everyone in the school corporation, regardless of their title or their role, knows that they are making an impact on a child,” Bruin said. “So we want to recognize them.”
Each individual will receive a handwritten note of gratitude, a card for a free drink at Lucabe Coffee Co. and a piece of “gratitude art.”
A number of organizations were involved with the initiative, Bruin added. Viewpoint Books helped the foundation get cards below cost. And while the foundation is putting $5 towards each drink card, Lucabe will make up the difference for drinks that cost more. The shop also designed the special “Grateful and Thankful” cards that have a printed note of thanks on the front and the drink details on the back.
Bruin and Emmitt said that the following organizations and individuals have been involved in writing thank-you messages: Toyota Material Handling, the Diesel Workers Union, Girl Scout Troop 3063, the Color Me Happy hair salon, nurse practitioner Gwen Kresovsky, BNI Midday Money Makers, BCSF board members and Emmitt’s family.
The gratitude art comes from students in BCSC’s i-CARE program, Bruin said. She added that the project wouldn’t be possible without the support of the foundation’s donors.
“I think when we started this, we wanted to make sure that it made an impact on our teachers from a community aspect, that the community was rallying behind them,” Emmitt said. “But I guess we didn’t realize how big of an impact it would make immediately.”
For instance, her family helped write some of the thank-you notes. After they were done, her daughter decided to make Thanksgiving “thankful cards” for her entire class, with her mother’s help.
“And I just thought ‘What a domino effect this small gesture of gratitude is causing,’” Emmitt said. “…She’s one of probably 50 to 100 people that have had their hands in signing these cards or coming up with things to put in them, tons of little i-CARE students. And so if it can cause an effect to help others outside of BCSC, it’s a big impact.”
